Injera, also sometimes spelled enjera, is a spongy flat bread with a distinctive taste and texture. Injera is a grain product which is predominantly eaten as a staple food item in Ethiopia. Injera is similar to what we consider to be bread and it is made from a grain generally found in Ethiopia, namely “teff”, which is a smaller grain.
There are multiple things that must be met in order to make this distinctive tasting and textured injera. Injera generally requires a batter mixture that is viscous enough (200–1500 “cp” or centipoise) to retain leavening gasses while cooking, but the batter must also be thin enough so as to result in a finished injera which is one centimeter or less in thickness. The spongy texture of the injera is preferably radially uniform and voids (sometimes referred to as “eyes”) generally should increase in diameter from the bottom to the top. The injera is preferably soft and flexible and has a unique brownish color. Some or all of these multiple requirements have heretofore prevented the successful automation of the injera production process.
Injera has traditionally been cooked on a very hot clay or stone oven and is normally patterned into a generally round and flat shape or configuration, much like a tortilla or a pancake. A cover may be placed over the batter or cooking injera to assist in the shaping and cooking of the injera.
There are certain attributes and traits of injera that Ethiopians and others are accustomed to experiencing when they consume the injera. The texture of the injera may be important to many consumers, and it generally has a first side which more resembles the surface of a tortilla, whereas the second side is generally covered with craters, holes or “eyes” as they are sometimes referred to. This is generally shown and described relative to some of the figures below.
More recently injera has been cooked on electrical frying type pans or electric skillets, again one at a time.
It is desirable to provide a way to cook injera on a more mass basis instead of one at a time, to achieve a mass production which results in injera that is just like the injera the consumer is used to eating, i.e. which meets most or all of the requirements set forth above.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an injera manufacturing system and machine which produces multiple injera pieces at the same time, to achieve production on a commercial basis, while still providing a final product which meets the expectations of the consumer.